All hail the London taxi

LONDON taxis have been voted the best in the world for the fourth year running, while Sydney and Melbourne failed to rank among the world’s best, according to the annual taxi report compiled by Hotels.com, the world’s leading hotel booking website.

London’s black cabs won nearly a third (28%) of the vote in a survey which asked almost 5,000 travellers from 23 countries around the world for their views on various aspects of travelling by taxi.

London was placed first in five out of the seven categories including safety, friendliness, cleanliness, quality of driving and knowledge of the area.

Despite also being named the most expensive (with 20% of the vote), London’s taxis beat off competition from New York (favourite amongst 9% of travellers) and Hong Kong and Tokyo (equal third with 7% of the vote). Singapore completed the global top five receiving 6% of the vote, displacing the German city of Berlin and capital of Thailand, Bangkok from last year’s top five.

The world’s best taxis:

RANK

CITY

%

1

London

28%

2

New York

9%

3

Hong Kong

7%

4

Tokyo

7%

5

Singapore

6%

Katherine Birch, head of marketing, Hotels.com Australia and New Zealand, said: “Taxi drivers are often the first people a traveller will meet on entering a country and their experience can set the tone of their holiday. After four years at number one, London taxi drivers are clearly leading the way, providing travellers with a reliable and safe experience.”

Other findings include:

From the airport

The research found that taxis are still by far the most popular method of travel from airportto hotel with 70% of Aussie travellers saying they head straight to the taxi rank when arriving in a foreign city. This was well over the global average of 54%.

Lost and found

Travellers around the globe reported a number of interesting items they’ve lost in taxis around the world. One Korean traveller reported losing a dried cuttle fish, a Norwegian unfortunately lost his/her wedding ring and an Italian even reported losing her bra!

Aussie travellers claimed to have found a range of interesting items in taxis around the world, including a guitar and even a dead bird.

Tips

Argentinians are the worst tippers, 34% confessing to never tipping their taxi drivers. Hong Kong residents are the most generous, with almost half (48%) choosing to tip 20% of the fare or more.

Aussie travellers admitted to being more generous when tipping overseas than at home, with almost half (47%) admitting to giving bigger tips when travelling.

Safety

All 23 countries put safety as the most important thing when taking a taxi ride, apart from Italians who deemed ‘cleanliness’ numero uno, ahead of safety that came in second place!

Pet hates

The majority of Australians claimed their pet-hates were taxis being too smelly (36%) along with cab drivers being too distracted (27%). Smoking at the wheel is frowned upon across the globe with 33% of Brits and 52% of the French naming it as a pet hate.

Cut the chat

Koreans are the least tolerant of chatty cabbies, with 37% admitting to hating making conversation. Travellers from Germany also weren’t keen on making small talk, with 30% labelling chatty drivers as one of their biggest dislikes! Just over one in ten Aussies (12%) declaring they are not a fan of chit chat with their taxi driver.